CFS: ‘Trauma’ (The Lumen)

The Lumen is an annual Edinburgh University new writing and arts journal of the mutual dialogue between medicine, the arts and the humanities. We hope to foster creative and critical discourse on the personal experience of illness and healthcare. The Lumen will provide a space for the expression of the deeply personal narratives of the medical encounter, from patients and healthcare professionals alike, and the aspects of the human condition that it exposes. We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting submissions for the Summer 2016 issue of The Lumen. The theme for this issue will be ‘Trauma’.

Contributors are welcome to interpret this theme in any way they wish along the lines of any discipline. We also welcome reviews of books or other artistic work that deals with a discussion of trauma or narratives that emerge thereof. Some possible interpretations of this theme could be:

The impact of a traumatic event or process on identity and temporality

Narrating and coping with traumatic events

Talking about trauma in public discourse

The form and essence of traumatic change

Trauma as a permanent state of being rather than a singular, momentary breach

The trauma of internal processes rather than external intrusions

Historical, political or socio-symbolic forms of trauma

The above list is not exhaustive, and is merely indicative of some of the possible interpretations of the theme for the forthcoming issue. Contributors are welcome to interpret the theme however they like.

We welcome submissions in the following categories:

Fiction: Short fiction which is no more than 3,000 words in length and can be written in any style or genre. Stories should be stand-alone and complete works.

Non-fiction: Narrative/memoir or essays (either critical or academic) that are no longer than 3,000 words in length.

Poetry: Poems that are no longer than 70 lines in length in any style, genre or form.

Reviews: Short reviews of one work (between 500 and 750 words) or comparative reviews of two or more works (between 750 and 1,000 words). If you would like to review a relevant literary or artistic work or performance, please contact us with a proposal via email and we shall consider it. Alternatively, we will also post a list of works we would like reviewed on our web site.

Visual Art: All forms of visual art (illustrations, photographs, et cetera), submitted as digital images (preferably high-resolution .jpeg) of up to 10 MB in file size. Please include the title, date, medium and size as applicable. If you should encounter any difficulty in sending us images via email due to file size, please contact us to arrange an alternative mode of submission.

The deadline for submissions for this issue is Friday, 4 December, 2015. All submissions must be sent on or before this date via email.

In addition, The Lumen also welcomes contributions for its blog on a rolling basis. These contributions can also be stories, poetry, essays, reviews, et cetera as per the guidelines below. These need not necessarily relate to the theme for the print issue, and can be on any subject or theme. We are also open to suggestions for blog posts. Please feel free to contact the editors at the above email address if you would like to make a suggestion for a piece.